Getting old? Get a dog!

Yet another wonderful reason to grow old with a dog or two!

Despite the fact that we rarely take our dogs for a walk, in the full meaning of the word, they still receive much exercise. For the straightforward reason that we are fortunate to have sufficient room around the house for the dogs to take themselves for a walk.

So when I first read a recent essay on Mother Nature Network about the benefits of people walking their dogs as they age my first reaction was not to read it too carefully! Thankfully, the article supported the benefits of having dogs as we age whether or not they are taken for walks. Read it for yourself.

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Dogs are the key to staying active as we age

People who walk their dogs tend to get more exercise, especially in winter, study finds.

Bad weather tends to keep people inside, but people with dogs often head outdoors even in winter. (Photo: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock)

It’s no surprise that people who walk their dogs tend to be more active overall than those who don’t have pets.

But a group of researchers from the U.K. wanted to delve deeper into the connection between dog walking and health, especially as people age.

More than 3,000 adults participated in the study. They were asked whether they owned or regularly walked a dog. Participants were outfitted with a device to constantly measure their physical activity over a seven-day period. On average, people who owned dogs were sedentary for 30 minutes less per day than those who didn’t have canine companions.

Because bad weather and the shorter days of winter are key reasons that many people don’t stay active outdoors, the researchers linked the activity data to weather conditions and daylight hours.

They found that on shorter days, as well as on days that were colder and wetter, all study participants spent less time being active and more time just sitting. Dog walkers, however, were much less affected by those inclement weather conditions. They were much more likely to get outside even if the weather wasn’t ideal. The study found that dog owners were 20 percent more active in bad weather than non-dog owners.

“We were amazed to find that dog walkers were on average more physically active and spent less time sitting on the coldest, wettest, and darkest days than non-dog owners were on long, sunny, and warm summer days,” said project lead Andy Jones from University of East Anglia’s Norwich School of Medicine.

Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the researchers used data from a study that is tracking the well-being of thousands of residents of the English county of Norfolk.

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night

“We know that physical activity levels decline as we age, but we’re less sure about the most effective things we can do to help people maintain their activity as they get older,” said lead author Yu-Tzu Wu from the University of Cambridge.

“We found that dog walkers were much more physically active and spent less time sitting overall. We expected this, but when we looked at how the amount of physical activity participants undertook each day varied by weather conditions, we were really surprised at the size of the differences between those who walked dogs and the rest of the study participants.”

The researchers said that perhaps their findings could inspire the development of successful programs to motivate people to be active.

“Physical activity interventions typically try and support people to be active by focusing on the benefits to themselves, but dog walking is also driven by the needs of the animal,” Jones points out. “Being driven by something other than our own needs might be a really potent motivator and we need to find ways of tapping into it when designing exercise interventions in the future.”

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I loved the sentence above that explained: “On average, people who owned dogs were sedentary for 30 minutes less per day than those who didn’t have canine companions.”

Not only because our lifestyle here at home doesn’t seem to embrace the word sedentary but also because Jean and I have no choice in how and when our dogs are given exercise.

Dogs walking is such a fun way to exercise. Even on the gloomiest days, a dog has such enthusiasm to be out in nature.

One of our pet sitting projects last year involved looking after an adorable, but quite fat blue Spaniel. A picture of him is the title photo on my new blog http://existentialbytes.WordPress.com , ‘It’s in Here Somewhere

This lovely dog, a rescue by his doting guardians, had not been overfed. Rather, the guardians were elderly and beset by physical limitations that did not allow them to take their dog for a walk for two reasons. He was terrible and untrained on a lead, and he seemed to have cloth ears when/if let out on a run on his own (they lived in a fairly remote area in Spain away from any traffic).
I found that just two walks per day of about 11/2 hrs each, were enough to bring his weight under control in the six weeks we had to be his surrogate carers. But the added benefit was seeing how much benefit it was to him emotionally too…he became less clingy, and more secure in himself. It was lovely to see him behave more like a dog and less like a naughty child trying constantly to ‘please us’ with lip licking, and face licks every time we moved (insecurity).
Dog walking is a shared joy if you allow your dog to stop to sniff and put their scent on the walking territory… Just watch the happiness on their face and yours will light up too.😄

Yes, great idea which we heartily agree with. But we didn’t plan on another 6 week old puppy – yikes! And yet he is a joy and light in our lives right now, especially since losing our 16 year old Lab Chudleigh ‘unexpectedly’ yesterday. I’ve been away from home – on the mainland these past weeks – which left Chris home alone to deal with the inevitable yet all the same surprising turn of events. It’s the second dog of ours that has passed on his watch. It’s deeply sad yet at the same time, the pup is there, ready to take over the guarding chores (he’s a Blue Heeler/Aussie mix). Middle dog Lucy is mourning, as Chud did when losing his longtime companion Susami last year. AAAhhhhh, the restrictions of life on this planet! I wish suffering would cease in all forms, but that’s a pipe dream. Aloha ❤

My situation with the dogs is similar to yours and Jean’s. My dogs wake me up and they go out anywhere from 6:30 am to 8Am. Their inner clock varies. They go in and out a number of times a day. I go out with them and walk around my fenced one acre 2-3 times and I usually do some type of chore while outdoors. I drag water hoses about in the summer, pick figs, throw balls for the dogs, sweep the carports or the patio or just amble about. The dogs definitely have been a key to aid my depression and to keep me moving. My situation is a bit unique in because I currently have eighth dogs and only three of the eight are young. Anyhow, my dogs who are all rescues from the streets after having been thrown out, help to keep me moving. One is from the local shelter. But the point of having a dog in one’s life, in my opinion, is about responsibility, companionship, and focusing on a being other than one’s self.